Niagara This Week is a local, free newspaper that started up a few years ago. Editions in other cities have been printed for years, and it was nice to have a free alternative to the local, pay newspaper. They publish on Wednesday and Friday. I don’t know anything about the demographics of their readers, but their reach is substantial. A good portion of the residents of Niagara Falls, Thorold, and St. Catharines get the newspaper.
Remember when one of the reporters used some content from the blog but didn’t attribute where it came from? Well, at that time I emailed a gently worded complaint to the reporter and the editor saying that I hoped it was just an oversight. I got a reply back from the editor right away saying that they should do a story on me. Robert Lapensee got in touch with me, and then a couple of weeks ago he came over to my house to interview me. He was there for about an hour and we talked about all sorts of things… where I go for my walk, how I get my information, Google Alerts, how much money I make, why I do it, etc. Robert was very nice, and it certainly was a pleasure talking with him.
Robert said that the topic was “timeless” (it wasn’t date or time sensitive), so if something more pressing came up, they would push my article back. It wasn’t in the first week, but was in this past Wednesday.
I was quite pleased with the article. He focused on the things I figured were important. My family said the pictures were good, but I didn’t like my double-chin (the camera adds 10 pounds remember!!). Probably the coolest part was being on the front page. Since those of you not in the region wouldn’t have seen it, here is the top of the newspaper:
I had sent my family the link earlier in the day, and then was over at my parents house in the evening. As I was there, my Dad went out to get the paper, and when he came in he said I was on the cover. I assumed he was joking, but there I was 🙂
You can certainly read the text online, but here is how the article looked in the newspaper:
Lots of people I know have seen the article. The response has been great. However, at work, hardly anyone has mentioned it me.
There hasn’t really been an increase in traffic, but that’s ok. Any publicity is good publicity, right?! Now I have something to reference as I contact various establishments asking for information, passes, etc. It’ll only keep growing from here.